KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Doctors and industry groups have urged the Health Ministry to review its policies on medical graduates and staff retention, after official data showed a sharp drop in housemen numbers since 2019 that could jeopardise care levels at public hospitals.
Based on the ministry’s Human Resources Division, there were 6,134 housemen in 2019 but a steady decline has seen this number fall to just 3,271 last year.
Speaking to The Star, Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) spokesman Dr Muhammad Yassin said this was due to the younger generation being more interested in other fields of study.
“Actually, this is a global trend where the newer generations are more inclined to non-science streams and prefer to pursue careers based on that. Hence, we have fewer undergraduates at medical school and fewer new medical graduates. In Malaysia, this is further exacerbated by the contract system issues which had been plaguing the country since 2016,” he was quoted as saying in The Star’s report.
“Hartal has predicted this issue since 2021 but those in power wouldn’t want to listen and didn’t want to take any affirmative actions. Medical graduates prefer to work overseas instead of joining the Health Ministry (MoH),” he added.
Similarly, the provisional registration of medical graduates with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) has also seen a significant decrease. In 2017, there were 6,147 medical graduates with provisional registration, but this was down to nearly half in 2022, with just 3,131.
These figures include graduates from both local private and public universities, as well as graduates from medical schools abroad.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz noted that the mushrooming of medical schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s had led to a heavy influx of medical graduates.
However, a moratorium imposed in 2011 aimed to control the number of medical students, which is now reflected in the decline of medical students from 2018-2019 and many who are not returning to Malaysia.
“We urge for transparency from the MoH on sharing its data on the numbers of healthcare workers by category towards more effective planning of the healthcare workforce. This information should be shared with the public on a dashboard. Currently, no one, except the government, knows what the numbers are,” she was quoted saying.
Previously Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said the number of health graduates was now down to 3,000 per year, from as many as 7,000 previously.
He then instructed his ministry's officials at the federal and state levels to study the heavy workload complaints at public hospitals and called for a re-evaluation on the deployment of graduate medical officers.
Dr Sean Thum, an independent healthcare advocate, called for a comprehensive overhaul of the current system, advocating for competitiveness in attracting and retaining talent within the public healthcare sector.
He stressed the need for better salaries, benefits, and professional development opportunities to address the systemic challenges.
Echoing these sentiments, retired Health Ministry official Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar asked for urgency in finding definitive solutions to the healthcare workforce crisis, calling for the establishment of a Health Service Commission to address the pressing challenges faced by the health system.
